Salvation Army favored by Register subscribers

So you dropped money into Santa's red kettle outside the grocery store during the holiday season, but do you really know where the money went? The Salvation Army, widely known for its cheerful bell-ringers, uses those donations to help the community in more ways than just emergency housing.

"They do so much good everywhere, quietly and without fanfare," daily subscriber Margaret Rutledge of Costa Mesa said in a note accompanying the gift cheque she received with her newspaper and sent back earmarked for the Salvation Army.

Due to the tremendous work done by the charity in Orange County through the years, the Salvation Army Orange County earned the most contributions through the Orange County Register's Golden Envelope voucher program – $281,100 in advertisement space.

Bruce Freeman, the charity's local director of development, said, "We're humbled that readers regard us so highly and want to say thank you."

The Salvation Army, a Christian organization, has been in operation for 125 years in Orange County, serving about 48,000Orange County residents annually. Thousands more shop its nine stores around the county.

Jason Mauldin is one of the people served by the charity. After his father's death in 2007, Mauldin, 28, plunged into a downward spiral of crime and homelessness.

After a six-month stint in jail, he realized it was time to turn his life around.

"While I was in jail, a car crashed into my tent in Yorba Linda," Mauldin said. "Had I been there, I would've been killed. I took this as a sign from above and as soon as I got out of jail, I came here to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army helped me get back on my feet. They gave me the right resources to use."

Now off the streets, Mauldin works for the Salvation Army Hospitality House in Santa Ana, a year-round emergency shelter with 34 beds for men. The shelter also provides other services to the homeless.

Quincy Bennett, a 41-year-old father of two, is one of the men using the work search program.

"If it wasn't for this place, the Salvation Army, I'd be hanging out at the Civic Center with everyone else," Bennett said. "Not a good place to be. If it wasn't for the kind people here, they'd have another loose cannon on the streets."

In addition to emergency shelter, the Salvation Army offers transitional housing for people involved in its various programs.

The charity also has activities for youth such as summer camps, day care, a preschool and the Pioneer School of Music. The Salvation Army also runs programs geared at rehabilitation, disaster services, senior services, social services and victims of human trafficking.

The program combating human trafficking is 4 years old and is part of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration of law enforcement, Community Service Programs Inc. and the Salvation Army.

According to Sherri Harris, program director for Network of Human Trafficking Services, OC, Orange County is most likely to see human trafficking in the form of domestic slavery.

Through the Salvation Army's aggressive anti-human trafficking efforts, 38 women and 10 men were served in 2012, transforming victims into survivors in a matter of months, Harris said.

"You have to look beneath the surface," she said. "Today slavery isn't a chain. It's psychological. In Orange County, it really is like living in what one of our survivors called a golden birdcage."

In every facet of its community service, the Salvation Army is determined to treat every person as an individual, said everyone from those who are served by the charity and those who work or volunteer with it.

Said Mauldin: "The Army makes sure the homeless aren't neglected or ignored. They make them feel human."